This invention relates to an earthworking implement, such as a bucket loader and, more particularly, to an assembly attached to the implement for cutting into the earth.
Loader buckets presently in commercial use include a variety of assemblies which penetrate into the earth to cut the same so that it can be loaded into the bucket. Typically, these assemblies include a cutting edge connected to the forward end of the base of the bucket for cutting the earth. It is, of course, well known that the cutting edge becomes worn after a period of use. Consequently, teeth forwardly extending of the cutting edge are also coupled to the bucket base by adapters to reduce the wear and improve the penetration of the cutting edge. The problems resulting from wear are also reduced through the use of cutting edges which are removably secured to the bucket base so that when an edge is sufficiently worn, it can be either totally replaced or reversed, end to end, on the base to provide a new cutting edge.
Despite these solutions to the wear problem, the prior art does not provide simple, inexpensive, and easily replacable or reversible cutting edges. For example, while only a small area of the cutting edge may be worn, the entire edge is replaced by, for example, reversing the edge. Replacement of the worn edge can also be complicated by the fact that in some assemblies, the tooth adapters must also be removed to provide a new cutting edge. Furthermore, the prior cutting edges have not been mounted to the bucket base in a way that secures them to the bucket for use in hard-working environments, such as rock crushing, while still enabling them to be easily removed from the bucket for repair or replacement.